Improvement in trunks



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E. A. G. ROLSTONE, OF ROXBURY", MASSACHUSETTS.

iMPRovEM ENT iN TRUNKS.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 27,476, dated March 13, 1860.

To all whom may concern-.-

Be it known that I, E. A. G. RoULsToNE, of Roxbury, in the 'county of Norfolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Manufacture of Traveling Trunks, Valises, dac.; and I do hereby declare that the nature of said improvement is fully set forth and 'described in the following specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

Figure l represents a transverse vertical section of the trunk; Fig. 2, a horizontal section, and Fig. 3, a vertical and longitudinal section of the same, the sections in said drawings being denoted by a heavy black line.

The nature of my improvement consists in making the body and ends of a trunk of corrugated metallic plates, so fastened together as to insure strong and water-tight joints.

In the drawings, A denotes the top or lid of the trunk;l3 B', the front and back sides or plates, and C C the ends thereof.

The top or cover A of the trunk may be made of one plate of metal, pressed by dies into the proper shape; orit may be made, as seen in Fig. 3, with a top piece a and two end pieces b the end pieces being tted upon and soldered or properly riveted to the top piece.

The body ot' the trunk is constructed with a plate ol' metal, so bent as to leave the part c thereof and the parts d ein proper posi tion to form the bottom plate and the front and back sides of the trunk-body3or the bottom and sides may be constructed of several plates, it desirable. In each end of this frame d c c, an end platefor f is fitted and properly fastened by solder or rivets.

The plates which form the bottom H of the trunk -are corrugated before being used, so that when applied together, as above set forth, they form a box, made, as it were, from one corrugated plate pressed into the proper shape, and when the top `and bott-om are properly hinged together they form a trunk made substantially from two corrugated metallic plates.

The adjacent rims or edges of the trunk bottom and top may have iiat metal straps and beads applied to them in the usual manner; or the corrugation in the cover and bottom may be so made as to come into proper contact or juxtaposition tolform a close joint when the trunk is shut up.

The purpose of my method of construction is to make a trunk which shall be very strong and stiff, not liable to break or col` lapse by rough usage, and one which may be made cheap, water-proof, and ornamental in appearance.

The traveling-trunk as usually made, with a Wooden body or frame-work, covered with leather and bound with iron straps, forms a very insufficient protection for clothes, merchandise, or other valuables placed therein for protection in transportation, as the nails used in its construction are very liable to get broken or drawn out and the wooden frame split open, and the much better and tobe-preferred article, the sole-leather trunk, though very strong, is liable to be cut th rough, ripped open, or badly damaged in traveling, from accident or violent usage. Travelers are constantantly liable to loss of articles placed in their trunks at the beginning of a journey, finding upon arriving at their des` tination trunks broken open and their contents lost or damaged. Neither of these trunks is water-proof, and both when well made are very expensive.

My trunk, with the exception of the closing joint, (which can be easily made so,) is

water-proof, and I find that I can manufacture them at a cost as small or less than a good article can be made in either of the above methods. Besides this, my trunk is capable,by being made with corrugated plates, of standing, without injury, great pressure, any of the violence to which baggage is continually subjected, and all kinds of weather. For such an article I find great demand, which demand I am enabled to supply at a reasonable price.

I am well aware that trunks have been made of double or single sheets of plain iron or other metal, but they are more liable to be bent, thrown out of shape, or seriously indented or broken than are my trunks, and to make them strong they have to be braced and bound by extra hoops and ties, which make them very expensive.

What I claim as my invention, and as a new article of manufacture, is-

A trunk made of corrugated metallic plates applied together, substantially as above set forth.

E. A. G. ROULSTONE.

Witnesses:

FRANCIS GoULD, Mosns SPRAGUE. 

